Let science of marketing drive creative solutions

Greg Economou’s article (SportsBusiness
Journal, Aug. 31-Sept. 6) about the art and science of selling was spot on, and
I believe that this philosophy could and should be applied to marketing in
sports as well.

Sports marketing is many
times inextricably defined by big events, captivating advertising, eye-catching
design of signage and collateral, and sometimes simply slapping a logo on a
product. Of course, these artful elements of the marketing mix are imperative
to success, but the science of marketing should be applied to drive decisions
regarding these creative components.

The first scientific
element of marketing is market and consumer insight (or more boringly named
“market research”). To start, properties, agencies, and brands must have a
detailed, thorough understanding of their fan base, including demographic
characteristics and psychographic/behavioral traits, in addition to analysis of
the competition and the overall economy. Additionally, companies must use
research to understand what their fans think about the positioning of the brand
in order to properly develop effective advertising, engaging design, and
exciting events. For example, Red Bull understands that their core audience is
typically young and involved in high-energy activities; thus they allocate
their sports marketing funds to extreme sports such as surfing, motorbiking and
flying and highlight these activities in their advertising to really connect
with their consumers and differentiate from their competition. I highly doubt
you’ll see the Red Bull logo on the Pro Bowlers Association sponsor roster any
time soon nor will you see Red Bull’s primary competition leapfrog them in
market performance.

Second is testing and
measurement to drive decision-making about the use of marketing assets. This
can be broken down into two types of measurement: testing of key performance
indicators (KPI) and measuring financial performance, or return on investment
(ROI).

Regarding testing KPIs —
let’s say you’ve just designed a few handsome e-mail templates to send out to
your fan base. Everyone in your organization looked at a few of your designs,
threw in their 2 cents, and chose design No. 1 to launch. Art had great
influence in the decision, but where’s the science? Instead of using just a few
insiders’ eyes to choose, you can use your fans’ eyes to select the best
design. Most e-mail programs have A/B testing capability, where you can send
multiple designs to different segments of customers, see which designs resonate
more by comparing open rates, click-throughs, etc., and select the best
template based on these KPIs. Testing has been historically applied in direct
marketing, but isn’t used enough in the digital sports world, where it is much
easier and cost-effective. This can be applied to Web sites, landing pages,
microsites and most other digital assets.

In today’s economy, ROI is
a hot topic, and why not? Who wouldn’t want to know how much money you’ll make
from sponsoring a property or holding an event and compare that to the cost of
your initiative? Bank of America stated that for every sponsorship dollar they
spend, they obtain $10 in revenue and $3 in earnings. With their huge stable of
sponsorships, they’ve obviously put a lot of work into measurement, and
rightfully so (after all, those TARP funds didn’t grow on trees). Though
measuring ROI isn’t easy, any kind of financial measurement will help sell
initiatives to upper management.

I’m not downplaying the
art of marketing, as it’s clearly very important; all I’m saying is that the
science of marketing should be the driver of a lot of creative decisions. A
thorough understanding of research, testing and measurement will help sports
marketers become more effective in executing creative ideas.